


when the moonlight falls asleep

by rosemalings



Category: Gugudan (Band), NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, F/M, INDEFINITE HIATUS, Light Dystopia, Minor Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Suh Youngho | Johnny, SO SORRY, if that is a thing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:28:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23146207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosemalings/pseuds/rosemalings
Summary: the world has changed since a meteor struck earth, leaving communities to band together and fend for themselves as one city tries to rebuild itself. amidst it all, a boy with sparks in his fingertips reunites with a girl with nine lives.
Relationships: Kang Mina/Mark Lee (NCT)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17





	1. come on, come on.

  


He has seen her before, shimmying down the side of a building when he goes for one of his late afternoon bike rides. Her eyes flash gold and the tips of his fingers spark instantly. He wiggles them against the handlebars and curls in on himself at a stoplight. Mark has heard of them before, those thieves who strike when it's dark and suddenly charities can reach their funding goals, animal shelters can sustain all the lost cats and dogs under their roofs, schools and housing developments are able to rebuild themselves after the meteor hit. The city was far from the epicenter of destruction but the reverberations left everyone shaken.

The girl looks familiar, her auburn hair tucked beneath a wide-brimmed hat as she hops into the slick black car waiting for her on the corner. Briefly, their eyes meet from across the street and Mark _actually_ blushes beneath his helmet. And then she smiles, sending his heart into overdrive. He has to release the handles of his bike so it doesn't completely turn into a lightning rod and stops himself from waving at her like some fool. There's something about those eyes that stays with him and he replays the moment in his head over and over again until he's safe in his room above the red and yellow lights of the training center.

"You good?" Johnny asks him, leaning against the doorway as he unwraps his fingers after another long training session, an imposing figure half-shrouded in shadow. He tends to be the first one to sense something off-kilter with Mark though Mark has also never been very good at masking his emotions.

"I thought I saw someone I knew," he blurts out from behind his tablet, scrolling through digital comic books he used to own. "Wasn't sure though."

"Could've been. We've all changed since the hit."

Mark lets his tablet rest against his bent knees and spreads his fingers, tiny sparks of electricity crackling at his fingertips once more. "Tell me about it." His hands close into fists and he presses them against his closed eyes, wracking his brain for any face he can remember from his past life, the person he was before the fall.

High school, band practice, _girls_ ...

A smile, in particular, stands out with bright eyes to go with it. Her hair was brown then, tucked beneath a plaid beret that wasn't school-sanctioned but she wore it anyway. He remembers the way the ends of her hair would brush against his desk in class, the way he fumbled with his Korean whenever they would have to work together for class. Those days seem like a hundred years ago. It's silly; they aren't that old at all but they aren't nearly as young as they used to be, not when it's every man for themselves and each neighborhood of the city has begun to slowly segment themselves into their own private communities.

"Mina," he says suddenly.

A shit-eating grin immediately forms on Johnny's face. "Mina? Have you been carrying a torch this long?" He swats at the pillow Mark has thrown at him.

"No! No, we just – we never." He keeps stammering before covering his entire face with his device, shaking his head. Johnny just laughs and crosses the room to ruffle his two-toned hair, which only serves to make Mark groan again. "I just _saw_ her, man. She's one of the Cait Sith, I think." 

Johnny makes a noise and Mark can't tell if it's a good or a bad thing. "Cait Sith, huh. Buncha do-gooders."

He shoves at the older boy's side. "You smell, bro." Because of that, Johnny makes a grab at Mark's tablet and tosses it onto the other pillow, playfully tackling him to the bed to lay a wet one on his cheeks, smothering him against those whiny protests as Mark tries to wiggle away, never once threatening to spark him. "Gross! Gross, _stoopp!_ Dude!"

And he just laughs haughtily, releasing him once satisfied with his big brothering for the day. "Clean yourself up. Doyoung's serving dinner soon."

The electric boy hugs the pillow to his chest next, looking and feeling quite small on his little bed overlooking the neon lights of his new home. He casts his gaze out the window and nods slowly. "Yeah, yeah. Be there."

✦✦✦✦

She never thought of herself as a superhero. She still doesn't.

It had started when Mina wanted to send money to her parents in Jeju. Training to be an idol had been expensive and those goals had long been abandoned when she gave up dance to become, well, a cat burglar after an invitation from a few girls with similarly developed powers and a collective desire to do ( mostly ) good.

Nayoung is busy counting jewels once they reach that sleek, modernist apartment once occupied by someone with cash to spare and a love of baroque design, and at her station behind the big oak desk, Sejeong is busy counting money, budgeting, dividing and adding with her precious calculator. She's gleeful, even pulling her hair back into a ponytail to manage what can be donated to that struggling orphanage. Nayoung sitting on the corner of her desk, happily trying on a choker she might keep for herself if they can manage it. 

"What was with the delay?" Hana, their leader, asks Mina as they unwind from their latest theft, adrenaline still pumping through their veins. Hana doesn't sound accusatory, concerned mostly because she has only just started letting Mina come with them on their jobs.

She goes quiet, a soft, shy laugh laced through her words, "I thought I saw someone I knew, that's all."

"She saw a cute _boy_ ," Mimi immediately cuts in, laughing loudly.

"Mimi," Hana sighs in a long-suffering but fond way, rubbing her temples. "Help Haebin with dinner."

"I do _not_ want her help. No! _No,_ " Haebin immediately calls from the open kitchen, waving her spatula threateningly as Mimi gleefully approaches her, not to help but to taste test her dinner omelets. ( It does smell divine. No one could blame her for it. ) "She will ruin everything!" 

Mina leans against the kitchen island, laughing as Hana tries to separate the two, avoiding messes and wasting food. "Unnie, I think it was a boy I used to go to school with. He looked like of those – those –" She purses her lips to the side, miming a kung fu pose and crossing her wrists. "I keep forgetting the name of it. It's pretty new." 

"Menaces, you mean," Haebin chuckles. "Can't tell if they want to be protectors of the city or what. They just keep leaving messes." 

"As if we don't," Mimi cuts in, having succeeded in adding more cheese to Haebin's cooking. She tips her head back and carefully drops some shredded cheddar into her open mouth. "I'll wash my hands!" she insists before anyone scolds her.

The girls eat scattered around their headquarters, apart yet very much together, though Mina remains suspiciously quiet through the rest of the evening. It isn't until she's certain everyone is asleep that she pulls on her blue velvet jacket and slides the window open to her bedroom, crawling out into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, this is my first venture into au territory that has come to me during this time of quarantine and social-distancing where i live. any feedback is always appreciated! thanks for reading.


	2. reunion.

It doesn't take her long to find him. They had learned of the training center when it first began, monitoring them just in case. On her feet, Mina is fast, faster than she used to be and hardly breathless when she approaches that red and yellow neon sign, the building itself a cross between Korean and Chinese architecture, a hodgepodge structure put together from broken pieces. It's late now, with most people having long retreated into their homes, giving way to the creatures of the underworld. Years ago, Mina would have felt scared, being a slight girl who could barely operate a pepper spray in time.

She feels fearless.

Her catlike senses have amplified her hearing, sharpened her stare in the dark. She _is_ a creature of the night, light on her feet as she climbs over flipped carcasses of cars down a poster-lined alleyway. It's a far cry from the formerly sleek neighborhood where she now lives, a place where wealthy idols once called their home, but she likes the dangerous charm of it all.

With a great exhale, she sees that the boy has climbed onto the roof of the building, legs pulled to his chest, his eyes on the sky. It's cute, the way his mouth hangs open, how big his eyes have grown, so big she can see the crescent moon reflected in them. Her silver boots hardly make a noise as she emerges from the alley without a speck of dirt on her clothes.

He doesn't even notice her.

Mina clears her throat, lifting her hand in a little wave. And she promptly giggles behind her hand when Mark looks down with a start and a jerk of his shoulders. 

"Yo," he half-whispers, hands slamming against the slanted roof, those sparks flying once more. "Guess you found me," his voice is so soft, a tremor betraying his hidden nervousness and he grips the edge of the rooftop.

"I know you, don't I?" There's a pang of regret there. They're not very old, with only a few years out of school and yet that time feels so far away. But she's fearless, approaching with purpose in her step. "I remember you from somewhere."

Mark can't help that ear-to-ear grin that instantly forms on his face at the mere confirmation that he wasn't crazy for recalling the girl who sat in front of him in school. "Mina? M-Mark. It's Mark."

"Mark," she laughs, clasping her hands under her chin. "Mark, I remember you. Can I come up?"

He grins and waves her up, moving to the side more out of show, wanting her to have enough room. His chest feels tight as he watches her barely blink as she scales the side of the building. Mina is swift, unsheathed claws digging into the ridges of the building. There’s a big smile on her face when she grips the edge of the roof and pulls herself over with ease, mostly because she likes that enormous smile that forms on his face when they finally get a good look at each other.

"I had this feeling when i saw you," he confesses on an exhale, sitting back down because he had ( maybe foolishly ) gotten up to help her onto the roof.

They giggle softly as Mina settles to sit on her heels, hands folded over her lap. "Yeah? Couldn’t forget about me?" She nudges him with her elbow. Warmth fills Mark’s cheeks at her joke and he’s thankful the moon isn’t bright enough to illuminate them. But he does instantly look away from her to hide that very earnest expression. "I was kidding…!"

"You. It’s good to see you. Really good." Because there isn’t much good in the world after the meteor and seeing someone from school, from when things were _last_ good …

"So this is where you ended up, with those kung fu guys?"

"Yeah. Yeah, we do tae kwon do too. They sort of found me. Or I guess I found them at the same time? Easy to feel all by yourself here," he confesses quietly, pulling his sweater sleeves over his hands and sparing a glance at that crescent moon. It was Johnny who found him, pulled him out of the rubble. That isn’t something you easily forget.

She nods, understanding, quiet. "Me too. That’s how I ended up with the girls."

"The … the cool cat girls."

Mina’s lips part to another grin but this time there are little, prominent fangs catching the light. Her eyes turn golden again and he thinks she’s devastatingly gorgeous.

He suddenly feels his age again, sitting behind Mina in school and watching her twirl her hair around her finger. Mark finds himself at a loss for words just looking at her, fingers twitching because he wants to twirl that hair around his fingers to see if it really is as silky smooth as he imagined. But instead sparks fly from his fingertips and he shyly curls his hands into fists.

Mina’s smile settles into something softer as she reaches across the inches between them to take one of his hands, spreading his fingers and pressing their palms together. The second their fingertips touch, Mina squeaks at the static shock and they laugh again. Easy.

Her smile fades entirely when she hears the faint footsteps of someone approaching. "Mark."

He almost flinches when a knock on the door follows her warning, but Mina’s presses her fingertips against his cheeks to turn his face towards her and suddenly they’re kissing. It’s soft and short and sweet and she smells _so good_. Time slows down for this one moment because he can’t believe he’s kissing Kang Mina who sat in front of him in high school. His eyes remain closed and his lips remain puckered after it ends, only for him to be brought out of his bliss by the voice of Johnny.

The door opens a crack. "You good out there?"

"I! I can explain!" he sputters, whirling around. 

Johnny gives him a look. "What are you talking about?"

Eyes widening, he looks around, but there’s no one to be found, not a single soul on the street. Damn, she’s good. "I – I promised I wouldn’t stay up all night doing nonsense," he finally replies, swallowing around the dryness in his throat. "How’s Ten doing?"

Johnny’s lips curl into a little smile but he answers him with, "Go to sleep, Mark."


End file.
